Milford OKs Cherry Street affordable apartment plan with car lifts

Developers are seeking to build an 8-unit apartment building on Cherry Street in Milford, Conn. on a site currently occupied by a two-family house.

MILFORD — The city’s affordable housing totals will soon be getting a lift.

The Planning and Zoning Board recently approved a developer’s plans to redevelop 17-19 Cherry St., a 0.25-acre site, into an apartment building with eight units, three of which will be set aside as affordable under state statute 8-30g.

A decision on Cherry Pie, LLC’s application had been delayed because of the board’s concern about the developer’s plan to install an “auto lift” system that would enable two cars to occupy a single parking space.

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But the board voted 7-3 to approve the development, with an added stipulation that the auto lifts be fully enclosed. The developer also agreed to install motion sensors on each lift that would automatically shut the lifts down if it detected anything moving underneath it.

“It is a beautiful building ... it is located in a transportation-oriented district, and I feel generally good for the city,” said board Chair Jim Quish. “But I do have concerns about the lifts.”

That is when he included language in the motion for approval calling for the lifts to be fully enclosed.

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That was not enough for board member John Agnese, who noted the Police Commission’s denial of the project due to the auto lifts as his reason for voting against the plan.

The Police Commission had denied the plan prior to it going before the Planning and Zoning Board.

The developers spent three public hearing meetings providing testimony to the safety and operation of the auto lifts, but were unable to get before the Police Commission again with this new information before Tuesday’s meeting.

The board was forced by state statutory time limits to close the public hearing Tuesday.

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Board member Etan Hirsch said he felt the police commissioners had not been presented the updated information, which could have changed their decision.

“The federal government deemed this a safe product,” Hirsch said. “Who are we to say it is not safe?”

In all, the developer has planned for 12 parking spaces, with four lift spaces, accessible via a mechanical lift and located above the four surface spaces.

With such lift systems, cars are driven onto a platform, which then lifts vertically with hydraulic cylinders to the specific level, enabling a second car to park underneath. These systems are more common in congested urban areas where parking space is at a premium.

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Attorney Andrea Gomes, representing the developer, said that the lift spaces would most probably be given to those residents with more than one vehicle. Those assigned to the "lift” spaces would also be trained in its use.

A two-family home now sits on the site, which has access through a shared driveway with an adjacent four-unit apartment building to the east.

The plan calls for four one-bedroom units, between 696 and 839 square feet, and four two-bedroom units, between 954 and 1,183 square feet.

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The application states that the redevelopment will “provide an attractive design, and a modest increase in density, in a manner consistent with existing and available infrastructure, without creating any substantial public health or safety concern, or impacts to neighboring properties.”

The application states that the driveway use would not be an additional burden and is less intense than prior uses, which included an office.